Page 30 of Given to the Fae
In truth, I’m not sure I want to know, but if I’m to be sold there, I should find out what I might be in for.
‘The fighting pits, female.’
‘And Bere is selling me to them...’ I think back to the woods, how happy the slavers’ leader was when I hit Bell. ‘To fight?’
His eyes find mine. He looks resigned. ‘There are female fighters, but they’re rare. You aren’t being sold as one of them.’
I say nothing, waiting for him to continue and he does after a moment.
‘You thought you were because of the fight with the other females that he commanded?’
I nod.
‘He did that to see which of you was the strongest, it’s true, but not so you could fight. He did it to find the one who could take the...rigors of being...’ He trails off, sounding almost angry, but I don’t think it’s at me.
I stare at him, not sure what he’s getting at.
‘You’ll be given to winners of the pit fights. An incentive to prevail. They’re strong warriors. Rough. Brutal. Savage.’
My mouth falls open. I hadn’t even considered that I’d be sold for...that. Once it was realized I was Fate Touched, it was never even considered. No male wanted his cock to shrivel and fall off because he stuck it in the unwilling Kismet.
But what if I’m not truly Fate Touched anymore?
‘He wanted to make sure I was strong enough to...survive,’ I mutter.
The look in his eyes has my stomach doing a flip.
‘Do any survive?’ I whisper my question.
His pitying look is enough of an answer, but he still gives me one. ‘Slaves who aren’t fighters don’t leave that place, Bryn.’
I want to beg him to help me to escape, but to where?
‘Will Bere not reconsider?’ I ask. ‘If I’m so sensitive to the Breach as the healer claimed, then surely I’m too weak to?—’
He shakes his head. ‘He’s promised a female to them. He won’t give either of the other two. They wouldn’t last a week. You, he believes, will last several. He wants a reputation for selling slaves to them who are more robust than the usual.’
‘I see.’
And I do. There’s no point in asking Morgan for help. He won’t risk himself and I don’t blame him for it. No one would, not for a slave.
‘I’ll find some food.’
He gets up and leaves, taking his mug of tea with him and locking the door behind him.
I need a plan. If I’m not still Fate Touched, they’ll kill me. If I am still Fate Touched, they’ll kill me faster. The only reason Ogdan didn’t have someone do it was because his superiors forbade it. I can’t assume the same will happen again. My final moments will be filled with pain and suffering no matter what.
I need to stop Bere from selling me somehow. Perhaps if I stop eating, if I refuse the tea and get weaker and weaker, by the time we get to that place, they might not want me. They might refuse Bere, and the slavers might take me somewhere else.
So many ‘mights’ isn’t ideal.
I hear the door and look up expecting to see Morgan, but it’s Bere who saunters in.
I jump up from my seat at the table, my gaze moving to the floor as he barks a laugh.
‘Naughty, naughty,’ he tuts. ‘Sitting at the table like your betters. Normally I’d have one of the lads give you a good lashingfor such a liberty, but the healer gave her orders. Come here. Let me look at you.’
With leaden feet, I go to him, and he grasps my face with his meaty fingers, turning it this way and that.
